Kinfolk + Covenant House BBQ Picnic
By Caroline Miller
I started officially interning with Kinfolk in August 2017 as their volunteer outreach coordinator. This has been a great opportunity for our church’s young adults to serve non-profits in the Orlando community. When I started my other internship at Covenant House Florida in January working with their transitional housing program, Rights of Passage Apartment Living (ROPAL), I noticed that there was not a lot of opportunities for the ROPAL youth to engage socially with each other. After speaking with Jon and my supervisor at Covenant House, we came up with the idea of having Kinfolk host a barbecue picnic for the youth.
After much collaboration, we organized to meet at Mayor Carl T. Langford Park in Downtown Orlando. We grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, played corn hole, and just had an enjoyable day together. The youth who were able to come had not had the opportunity to even meet each other, and two of them came to find they were neighbors! It is so important for this youth to have a system of support during this stage of their life, just like the support I have been so fortunate to have with our Kinfolk ministry. It could not have been a more beautiful day. Overall, it was a successful example of the message Kinfolk is built on, our lives truly are holier when they are shared together.